Patsy Touhey
Encyclopedia
Patrick James Touhey was a celebrated player of the uilleann pipes
. His innovative technique and phrasing, his travels back and forth across America to play on the variety and vaudeville stage, and his recordings made his style influential among Irish-American pipers. He can be seen as the greatest contributor to a distinctive American piping style.
, County Galway
, Ireland
. His father James and his uncle Martin were accomplished local players. The family arrived in Boston around 1868, and his father arranged for Touhey's instruction from Bartley Murphy of County Mayo
. However at the age of ten Patsy lost his father and awhile later laid the pipes aside.
In his late teens he strayed into a Bowery
music hall
where John Eagan, the “White Piper” of Galway, was engaged. Enthralled by Eagan’s virtuosity he took up the instrument again, and under the instruction of Eagan and Billy Taylor of Philadelphia soon became a master.
He toured the Eastern United States with Irish variety and theatre, including Jeremiah Cohan’s Irish Hibernia, in which he played for the step-dancing of young George M. Cohan
, and William Powers
' Ivy Leaf company. At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
in Chicago he played at the Irish Village, one of two rival Irish pavilions, and was later engaged for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis (Louisiana Purchase Exposition
). He starred in vaudeville
skits, trading jokes with his wife Mary and their partner Charles Burke. The shows included slapstick, low-brow gags, Irish nostalgia, and a piping finale to which Mary Touhey danced.
Chicago
Police Chief Francis O'Neill
, the prominent compiler of Irish dance tunes, called him, “the genial wizard of the Irish pipers . . . A stranger to jealousy, his comments are never sarcastic or unkind, neither does he display any tendency to monopolize attention in company when other musicians are present.”
Touhey lived on Bristow Street in the Bronx, New York City
, and maintained a summer house in East Haddam, Connecticut
. He died on January 10, 1923, and is buried in St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx.
Most uilleann pipes have three drones and three regulators. Touhey's middle drone was replaced by a regulator with a single key that sounded an E-note, which would otherwise have been unavailable. Their current owner, Sean McKiernan, plays them here.
Some surviving recordings show how Touhey often switched smoothly from a jig or slow air to a reel. Another unusual performance device was to end his performance with a well-known American piece, like “Turkey in the Straw”, performed in piping style. “He takes the audience by storm,” wrote Captain O’Neill, “even when composed of mixed nationalities.”
His music can be heard on three 78rpm sides recorded by Victor in 1921: two medleys of reels and one of jigs. A fourth medley comprising the Stack of Barley and other hornpipes was recorded but not released. Two of his 78 recordings may be heard on the two volume CD The Wheels of the World, which focuses on early recordings of Irish-American musicians.
An earlier negotiation with Edison had fallen through over money, but Touhey advertised a list of 150 tunes and recorded the cylinders one by one at home, filling orders at $10 per dozen. Several dozen of these survive, and more examples of his playing can be heard on cylinders made by Captain O’Neill. The two sources can be differentiated as either Touhey or O'Neill's voice introduces the player and the piece.
It was one of O'Neill's cylinders that prompted the Gaelic scholar Father Richard Henebry to declare, “[Touhey’s performance] has the life of a reel and the terrible pathos of a caoine. It represents to me human man climbing the empyrean heights, and when he had almost succeeded, then tumbling, tumbling down to hell, and expressing his sense of eternal failure on the way. The Homeric ballads and the new Brooklyn Bridge are great, but Patsy Touhey’s rendering of ‘The Shaskeen Reel’ is a far bigger achievement.”
Some others, notably Brother Gildas O’Shea of Kerry, disdained Touhey’s style as outside the tradition. Asked whether Touhey's recordings had influenced his own playing, Gildas replied, "No, I was learning the pipes at the time." However generally pipers were in awe of Touhey's playing; Séamus Ennis
, writing in the liner notes of Dublin fiddler Tommy Potts's Liffey Banks LP, said that he and his father considered Touhey's playing "hyper-phenomenal," and that he considered Touhey "the best of the men who came before my father."
Touhey left no progeny but several pupils, including Michael Carney and Michael Morris. His style can be heard in the playing of many others, most of whom were either born in or spent considerable time in the United States, including Michael Gallagher, Paddy Lavin, Tom Busby, Tom Ennis, Hugh McCormick, Eddie Mullaney, Joe Shannon and Andy Conroy. Tom Busby was a student of Carney's and described the style of these pipers in various articles and letters printed in An Piobarie, the newsletter of Na Piobari Uilleann. This close-fingered way of playing Busby always described as the Connaught
style of piping. The style of these American-based players differs in various ways from that of players recorded in Ireland, but the possibly unique features of an American style are hard to discern now, due to the lack of recorded evidence.
Various artists including Patsy Touhey
Uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...
. His innovative technique and phrasing, his travels back and forth across America to play on the variety and vaudeville stage, and his recordings made his style influential among Irish-American pipers. He can be seen as the greatest contributor to a distinctive American piping style.
Life
“Patsy” Touhey was born in February 1865, near LoughreaLoughrea
Loughrea is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The town lies north of a range of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty Mountains.The town expanded in recent years as it increasingly becomes a commuter town for the city of Galway.- Name :...
, County Galway
County Galway
County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. His father James and his uncle Martin were accomplished local players. The family arrived in Boston around 1868, and his father arranged for Touhey's instruction from Bartley Murphy of County Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
. However at the age of ten Patsy lost his father and awhile later laid the pipes aside.
In his late teens he strayed into a Bowery
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
where John Eagan, the “White Piper” of Galway, was engaged. Enthralled by Eagan’s virtuosity he took up the instrument again, and under the instruction of Eagan and Billy Taylor of Philadelphia soon became a master.
He toured the Eastern United States with Irish variety and theatre, including Jeremiah Cohan’s Irish Hibernia, in which he played for the step-dancing of young George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
, and William Powers
William Powers
William Powers may refer to:*William C. Powers, president of The University of Texas at Austin*William T. Powers, scientist associated with Perceptual Control Theory*William Powers , former New York state Republican Party chairman...
' Ivy Leaf company. At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
in Chicago he played at the Irish Village, one of two rival Irish pavilions, and was later engaged for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis (Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
). He starred in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
skits, trading jokes with his wife Mary and their partner Charles Burke. The shows included slapstick, low-brow gags, Irish nostalgia, and a piping finale to which Mary Touhey danced.
Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
Police Chief Francis O'Neill
Francis O'Neill
Francis O'Neill was an Irish-born American police officer and collector of Irish traditional music.O'Neill was born in Tralibane, near Bantry, County Cork. At an early age he heard the music of local musicians, among them Peter Hagarty, Cormac Murphy and Timothy Dowling. At the age of 16, he...
, the prominent compiler of Irish dance tunes, called him, “the genial wizard of the Irish pipers . . . A stranger to jealousy, his comments are never sarcastic or unkind, neither does he display any tendency to monopolize attention in company when other musicians are present.”
Touhey lived on Bristow Street in the Bronx, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and maintained a summer house in East Haddam, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. He died on January 10, 1923, and is buried in St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx.
Playing style
Touhey played left-handed, in a mirror image of the typical position. He used concert-pitch instruments made by the Taylor brothers of Philadelphia. In performing dance music, he played fast but deviated from strict tempo to bring out the character of the tune. He used the regulators (three keyed pipes lying under the heel of the hand) not to keep the rhythm, but to emphasize the broader structure of the piece. He combined legato passages with "tight" (staccato) ornaments—runs, triplets and backstitching—as well as crans, all executed with the highest proficiency. However, he did not employ certain ornaments in common use today, such as raising the chanter off the knee to swell a note's volume and intensity. In these ways his style contrasts with the prominent influences on current piping who stayed in Ireland—Willie Clancy, Johnny Doran, Seamus Ennis, John Potts, and Leo Rowsome.Most uilleann pipes have three drones and three regulators. Touhey's middle drone was replaced by a regulator with a single key that sounded an E-note, which would otherwise have been unavailable. Their current owner, Sean McKiernan, plays them here.
Some surviving recordings show how Touhey often switched smoothly from a jig or slow air to a reel. Another unusual performance device was to end his performance with a well-known American piece, like “Turkey in the Straw”, performed in piping style. “He takes the audience by storm,” wrote Captain O’Neill, “even when composed of mixed nationalities.”
His music can be heard on three 78rpm sides recorded by Victor in 1921: two medleys of reels and one of jigs. A fourth medley comprising the Stack of Barley and other hornpipes was recorded but not released. Two of his 78 recordings may be heard on the two volume CD The Wheels of the World, which focuses on early recordings of Irish-American musicians.
An earlier negotiation with Edison had fallen through over money, but Touhey advertised a list of 150 tunes and recorded the cylinders one by one at home, filling orders at $10 per dozen. Several dozen of these survive, and more examples of his playing can be heard on cylinders made by Captain O’Neill. The two sources can be differentiated as either Touhey or O'Neill's voice introduces the player and the piece.
It was one of O'Neill's cylinders that prompted the Gaelic scholar Father Richard Henebry to declare, “[Touhey’s performance] has the life of a reel and the terrible pathos of a caoine. It represents to me human man climbing the empyrean heights, and when he had almost succeeded, then tumbling, tumbling down to hell, and expressing his sense of eternal failure on the way. The Homeric ballads and the new Brooklyn Bridge are great, but Patsy Touhey’s rendering of ‘The Shaskeen Reel’ is a far bigger achievement.”
Some others, notably Brother Gildas O’Shea of Kerry, disdained Touhey’s style as outside the tradition. Asked whether Touhey's recordings had influenced his own playing, Gildas replied, "No, I was learning the pipes at the time." However generally pipers were in awe of Touhey's playing; Séamus Ennis
Séamus Ennis
Séamus Ennis was an Irish piper, singer and folk-song collector.- Early years :In 1908 James Ennis, Séamus's father, was in a pawn-shop in London. Ennis bought a bag of small pieces of Uilleann pipes. They were made in the early nineteenth century by Coyne of Thomas Street in Dublin. James worked...
, writing in the liner notes of Dublin fiddler Tommy Potts's Liffey Banks LP, said that he and his father considered Touhey's playing "hyper-phenomenal," and that he considered Touhey "the best of the men who came before my father."
Touhey left no progeny but several pupils, including Michael Carney and Michael Morris. His style can be heard in the playing of many others, most of whom were either born in or spent considerable time in the United States, including Michael Gallagher, Paddy Lavin, Tom Busby, Tom Ennis, Hugh McCormick, Eddie Mullaney, Joe Shannon and Andy Conroy. Tom Busby was a student of Carney's and described the style of these pipers in various articles and letters printed in An Piobarie, the newsletter of Na Piobari Uilleann. This close-fingered way of playing Busby always described as the Connaught
Connacht
Connacht , formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for...
style of piping. The style of these American-based players differs in various ways from that of players recorded in Ireland, but the possibly unique features of an American style are hard to discern now, due to the lack of recorded evidence.
Discography
Solo album- "The Piping of Patsy Touhey" (2005)
Various artists including Patsy Touhey
- "A New Dawn" (1999)
- "The Wheels of the World Vol 1" (2000)
- "The Wheels of the World Vol 2" (2000)
- "Farewell To Ireland" (2005)